Paul Muite: Why Four IEBC Commissioners Stormed Out of Bomas Before Chebukati Announced Results

Senior Counsel Paul Muite says the four IEBC commissioners led by Vice Chairperson Juliana Cherera stormed out of the Bomas of Kenya to protest the presidential results that Chairperson Wafula Chebukati was about to declare.

Muite, who is one of the lawyers representing the four IEBC commissioners, on Friday told Supreme Court judges that the four were denied the opportunity to verify the validity of results received from 27 constituencies.

He was responding to a question by Deputy Chief Justice Philomena Mwilu, who sought to understand why the four commissioners walked out in protest just before Chebukati announced the final presidential results on August 15th.

"Before the four commissioners walked out of Bomas the posting of results on the screen had ceased. All they wanted is to be given the opportunity to peruse the results of these 27 constituencies so as to satisfy themselves on the winner of the election," Muite submitted.

"Whether that winner had reached the constitutional threshold of 50+1 is all they wanted to know."

The counsel further told the court that Cherera and commissioners Irene Masit, Francis Wanderi, and Justus Nyang’aya asked Chebukati to reinstate the public screening of the results which had earlier been stopped but he declined, prompting them to leave the premises and disown the election results.

"When that was denied they had no option but to refuse to be a party to the violation of the constitution. So as I sit down, let this record show that the results announced was not a declaration of the commission. They were the majority, they didn't support it and therefore they asked for nullification of that declaration," said Muite.  

Lawyer Issa Mansur echoed Muite’s sentiments, stating that Chebukati had the opportunity to announce the results from the 27 constituencies on the morning of August 15th.

"The failure to announce those results in a respective view triggered the scuffles and protests at Bomas. The commission continued acting as a corporate entity but it had serious governance issues and this is confirmed by the fact that they were able to deliver a general election. It is only when the chairperson took unilateral decisions in the name of the commission that the problems started,” said Mansur.

In their affidavits, the four commissioners said their verbal protests dated back as far as April 2022, with the commissioners hiding their frustrations from the public for fear of eroding public confidence in the IEBC ahead of the elections.

They cited a memo to Chebukati dated April 12th, 2022, where commissioners Cherera, Nyang’aya, and Wanderi protested being blocked from corporate decision-making in the areas of policymaking and oversight.